Classical education may be “old school,” but its renaissance in the U.S. is among the fastest-growing—and most promising—developments in K–12 education today. To inform parents, teachers, school leaders, lawmakers, and citizens interested in the revival of classical liberal arts education, this database offers a survey of almost 900 schools that make up the movement today, drawing from the nine largest classical school associations:

• The Association of Classical Christian Schools
• The Institute for Classical Liberal Education
• The Society for Classical Learning
• The Classical Latin Schools Association
• The Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education
• Great Hearts Academies
• The Chesterton Schools Network
• The CiRCE Institute
• The Hillsdale College K–12 Office (including its Barney Charter School Initiative)

Information about the schools mostly comes from the schools’ websites—their mission and vision statements, educational philosophies, and curriculum maps. Where possible, email and phone correspondence with school administrators supplemented online information.

What Are Classical Schools?

Study of these materials reveals three ideas that animate the work of classical schools and unite them into a cohesive movement. First, classical schools understand education to entail passing down the wisdom of past generations, whether through the great books, the ancient and medieval liberal arts of the trivium and quadrivium, or the religious traditions that have formed the West. Second, in part because this intellectual tradition is so rich and complex, classical schools seek to prepare students for a life of learning, whether that continues at the university level or not, by equipping them with the habits and skills necessary to learn for themselves. Hence, most classical schools teach logic and rhetoric and incorporate teaching methods like recitation and Socratic seminars to hone students’ capacities for attention, memory, reason, and conversation. Third, classical schools understand this preparation to require formation of character as much as intellect, for the moral and intellectual virtues, though “two in speech,” to borrow a phrase from Aristotle, are “naturally inseparable.” In short, classical schools equip students with the knowledge, wisdom, and virtue essential for appreciating, practicing, and preserving American principles and freedoms.

Read the full report on the classical school movement.